


"I'm ready."

by thewaterflowing



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen, OT4, it's a bit absurd?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-31
Updated: 2017-05-31
Packaged: 2018-11-07 11:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11057898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaterflowing/pseuds/thewaterflowing
Summary: or how One Direction is going to come back.





	"I'm ready."

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is just a silly thing I put together :') I am sorry for any mistake you might find, and I definitely hope you enjoy!

With a smile brightening up every single one of his features, he put down his guitar. The concert was over, his concert was over, and he was taking in all the applause people in the audience were willing to give them. He could barely see the signs which were being held up for him to see, his eyes couldn’t manage to focus long enough, the adrenaline still rushing through his veins after spending so long on the stage by himself. Well, perhaps he wasn’t entirely by himself, considering how he still had a band backing him up, but it was definitely different. After all, he had been the only one doing both the talking and the singing. He raised his arms as a gesture meant to thank the audience, then he turned around to ask for applause directed towards the members of his band, joining in and clapping as hard as he could. He was so grateful to have the opportunity to do all this and to get to perform his own songs up there, on the stage. Besides, seeing the reaction from the audience, seeing them sing along, knowing all the words… That was a feeling that never got old.

Eventually it ended, he had to leave the stage. (Just couldn’t stay the entire night on stage, having his ego boosted, hearing the acclaims…) As he headed backstage, he felt something change in the atmosphere around him. The noise people made suddenly diminished before vanishing entirely. He looked around, intrigued. He was alone, completely alone… His band, the staff, his management, no one seemed to be there anymore. He spun around. (Almost falling over when it ended because he was a) a bit clumsy, and b) tired from having spent so much time walking around and attempting to dance on the stage.) The way back to the stage had disappeared, the lights were flickering for a little while before he was completely in the dark.

However, he ended up seeing something shine bright in the distance, and considering how everything was pitch-black around him, he moved towards the light, curious, but not worried. What he felt in that instant was familiarity, as if he knew where he was headed and as though he truly couldn’t wait to be beside that light. He hurried his pace, somehow forgetting his tiredness. With each step he took, he could feel his feet leave the ground for longer then they should have been able to. Eventually, he found himself running on air (like Nathan Trent’s entry for Austria during the Eurovision Song Contest 2017) (yup). He finally managed a safe landing when the light was only a few meters away.

“Heyyy Neil!” He heard the light say.

Oh! Louis! That explained everything! The brightness, the familiarity, the eagerness to follow the light. Niall felt overwhelmed for a second. It felt like he hadn’t been around Louis for centuries. (In reality, it had only been a week and a half.) His mind wanted to move towards his friend and hug him tight, but before he could make a single movement, his feet were stuck on the ground and a hand was pressed against his chest, preventing him from falling and moving. The hand didn’t feel as familiar, though he believed he could recognise it.

Niall slowly raised his head to see to whom the body part belonged. The first thing he saw was long dark and straight hair, and as his eyes reached the face of the hand owner, he whispered, breathlessly : “Steve Aoki…” He got a light nod as a response. He felt his feet being able to move again, yet the hand was still on his chest, making him feel strangely calmer than he had ever been.

Behind Steve, Niall could see Louis and his light radiating, his bright smile digging the usual wrinkles around his eyes. He reciprocated the smile, though he was convinced he could never reach Louis’s level on this aspect. (Football, he could try. Singing, they were a tie. Shit talking, that was arguable. But smiling… He wasn’t so sure.) He tried to move past Steve to reach Louis, but Steve was still stopping him. Niall stared at him, he didn’t understand.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Steve asked. Damn, even the man’s voice was calm and soothing.  
“Ready for what?”

A memory suddenly irrupted in Niall’s mind. He could see himself sitting at a desk in one of the hotel rooms he had stayed in. His eyes were staring at his computer screen on which were displayed pictures of Steve and Louis doing promo for their song together, laughing and hugging each other. Niall heard himself from the memory murmur quietly : “He used to hug me like that…” He remembered that moment and the strong need to hug Louis that had come with it.

He understood what Steve had meant and what he had wondered if he was ready for…And he was.

“I was born ready.” He eventually replied.

Steve nodded and stepped aside, letting Niall go through, joining Louis, who was waving goodbye at Steve, thanking him for everything, and letting him know he’d stay in touch and would call him soon. Steve replied with a bright smile, put his headphone on, which seemed to teleport him out of wherever they were.  
And finally, Niall hurried into Louis’s arms that were open for him, letting the warmth and light embrace him. He was even blinded for a few seconds.

 

**

 

When he opened his eyes again, they were both someplace else. Somewhere as unfamiliar as the place they had been before, but this time they weren’t in the darkness anymore. (Louis was still as bright though.) The room they were in looked like a dressing room. Well… It actually was a dressing room. But it wasn’t just anyone’s. Niall could feel it. However, Louis knew instantly. He had a smirk on his face and his hand was patting one of two plushy bears sitting on a desk in front of a mirror.

“You know you can tone down the brightness, I don’t want to be blind before I’m very old.”

Niall’s turned his head to see the person who had just spoken. He definitely knew the voice. He could pretty much recognise it in the middle of a choir or even a crowd… The appearance didn’t entirely correspond to what he had known, however. Short hair, weirdly shaped sunglasses, and clothes that he would have believed were only present on catwalks during the various fashion weeks, but not worn by anyone in real life. Especially this well.

“Yeah shit, sorry love.” Louis replied, without the single ounce of remorse in his voice. A second later, he wasn’t as bright anymore. (Visually that is. He still felt like the sun had taken a human form.)

Harry took off his glasses, putting them back on top of his head, leaving them alone to try to control the shock of hair he had. His eyes laid on Niall, inquiring : “Is it the time?”

Niall was frowning, lost in his thoughts, staring at Harry. Up and down, down and up, up and down. He wasn’t sure this would do… He came closer to Harry. (Harry was still a giant.) He reached for the hair. He had tried to get used to it, he had even managed to believe he was okay about it, but really, he did miss the long hair, he missed to possibility of playing around with it, of sticking a lock of it above Harry’s lips while he was asleep and just laughing out loud with Liam at that weird moustache, like the absolute children they were, until they woke him up.

As if he was reading his thoughts (maybe he actually was…), Harry said : “It’s just hair, it’ll grow back,” He nudged him, before adding, anticipating his idea : “And no, wig and hair extensions are out of the question, you’ll have to be patient.”

Niall mumbled before taking a step back and looking at Harry’s outfit, especially the colourful pants.

“It’s super comfy, you should try them!”

As soon as he said it, Niall could feel the silk of the pants against his legs, they indeed were fairly comfortable, Harry was right. He wasn’t exactly sure about how they fit him thou- “You look ridiculous, it’s amazing!” Louis’s laugh rudely interrupted his train of thoughts, confirming what he had suspected. And before Niall could say anything, he heard the click of a photograph being taken by Louis, so as his only response, Niall sticked his tongue out at him.

“You know, just because I have made some changes appearance-wise, does not mean I’ve changed one bit.”

“Can confirm!” Niall heard Louis say.

Harry put an arm over Niall’s shoulder, leaning on him and he started dramatically reciting: “You’re insecure… Mh, don’t know what for.” And as Niall was rolling his eyes, his smile getting bigger and bigger and shaking his head at the same time, Louis continued in the same dramatic tone: “You’re turning heads when you walk through the doo-ooh-oor.” He then put his own arm over Niall’s other shoulder, caressing gently Harry’s behind their friend’s back, and they did walk through the doo(-ooh-oo)r.

 

**

 

Next thing they knew, all three of them were passing through a hotel door without opening it, nor feeling anything weird when it happened. It just did. They all separated from each other. Well, at least Louis and Harry did let go of Niall to hold each other’s hand better. Niall looked at them, his eyebrow raised in a “really?” kind of way. Their sappiness hadn’t changed and was visibly still growing strong. It was disgusting… Or it was beautiful… He couldn’t really make up his mind about it. (Nah, he really could, and he loved how much they loved each other.)

Anyway. The hotel room wasn’t empty, and there was someone they could all recognise, even with his back turned to them as it was the case now. It seemed like he hadn’t realised three people had irrupted into his hotel room, as he hadn’t turned to them. Perhaps it was because of how focused he was on a sort of choreography he was performing with his arms and hands, counting, while a song was playing from the phone that had been nonchalantly thrown on the bed.

They stayed back, looking at him, amused, for a little while, wondering when he would eventually turn around or just notice their presence. When he finally did, after rehearsing a few more times, he quite literally jumped so high he knocked his head against the ceiling of the room, while making one of the weirdest noises any of them had ever heard.

“How long have you been there??” Liam asked, his hand pressed to his chest as though he was making sure his heart was still properly beating. Niall noticed he had a new tattoo on his arm, or maybe this one had always been there, he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“Long enough! What was that little choreography?” Louis teased, while moving forward to check out the view from the hotel room. When he did, he took a step back and whispered inaudibly: “Wow. That’s weird.”

While he was staring at what he believed was so interesting on the other side of the window, Harry had given Liam a quick hug, complimenting him on the song and saying it had grown on him a bit. Niall couldn’t figure out whether he was being his polite self or if he was being genuine. After all, he’d watched interviews in which Liam had stated Harry’s music wasn’t his cup of tea and that the feeling was probably mutual. But still, they were both there, talking about each other’s music like they enjoyed it a lot. He shrugged to himself, it wasn’t that big of a deal, he guessed. After all, all four of them, no matter how different their own styles were, they all had a common ground, and it was their band’s music, which they were all proud of.

Niall suddenly felt Liam’s look shift on him: “Is this it? Did you have it?”

He frowned a bit: “I don’t know, wouldn’t want to bother your newfound freedom…”

After he said it, he thought for a second that the dog filter on snapchat had appeared on Liam, as his eyes had widened and he looked like a kicked puppy. Niall couldn’t reasonably stay mad, no matter how much he wanted to and lord knew how much he wanted to.

“It’s just one lyric, doesn’t really mean anything…”

Niall nodded as a response. After all, he knew Liam well enough to know the lyric had probably come out wrong, his friend wasn’t the most eloquent person out there. He brought him closer for a hug though. Ah, it felt good, for the four of them to be all together.

“So, do we all agree? We’re going back?” Niall asked.  
“Of cou-” Harry and Liam started to reply.

They were interrupted by the sound of Louis opening the window. On the other side, it was pitch-black, but there were noises of acclaims that seemed to be pretty close. “They’re waiting.” Louis said, his usual bright smile on his entire face, from his lips to his eyes.

They all looked at each other and went through the window, right to the backstage of the venue. (Maybe it was the same where Niall had performed earlier, maybe it was an entirely different one, nothing was certain.)

Suddenly, they had their microphones in their hands, with the right colours on them and Harry’s hair had grown back to shoulder length (he gave a “I’m so done with you” look to Niall, clearly blaming him).  
And they finally went on stage, under thunderous applause. In the distance, Niall spotted a sign that read: “One Band, One Dream, One Direction”, he smiled, the feeling truly never got old.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Niall opened his eyes and sat straight on his bed, the cardboard cutouts of his band mates staring at him. He realised at this instant how creepy this could feel, but somehow, he was glad they were there. 

He grabbed his phone, didn’t bother to look at the time, he just noticed he had fallen asleep while listening to Harry’s album, right in the middle of Kiwi, surprisingly enough. (Guess he could really sleep through anything, even such a good song.) He pressed the phone call discussion button on their group chat, and he got worried he was still dreaming when they all answered pretty quickly. (Liam looked like he had just woken up from a power nap and looked fresh as a daisy.) (Harry and Louis were pretty damn visibly in the same bed but each was using their own phone, giggling at how funny they thought they were.)

“I had it guys, I had the Dream we said we would follow, I’m ready, we’re going back!”

**Author's Note:**

> (honestly, I rushed a bit to post this so that none of the boys have time to release new music and make this fic obsolete before it even being posted hehe) anyway, i hope you liked it :)


End file.
